transmedia storytelling for mental health discrimination reduction and social inclusion
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Presentation at YTH Live Conference April 7, 2014, San Francisco, CA Nedra Kline Weinreich President, Weinreich Communications www.social-marketing.comTRANSCRIPT
Transmedia Storytelling forMental Health
Discrimination Reduction and Social Inclusion
Nedra Kline Weinreich
April 6-8, 2014San Francisco, CA
Annual Conference on Youth + Tech + Health
@Nedra
Stories are powerful.
How do stories create change?
Stories grab people’s attention.
Stories make abstract concepts concrete and relevant.
Stories shape our understanding & interpretation of issues/events.
Adr
ian
Kinl
och
Stories provide vicarious experiences.
Photo: Bryan Rosengrant
Stories create empathy for others.
Stories create or reinforce social norms.
Phot
o: S
istak
Phot
o: S
istak
Transmedia Storytelling
Phot
o: S
istak
Immersive Engagement for Change =
Behavior Change Model + Good Storytelling +Ubiquitous Media +
Participatory Experience +Real World
1 in 4 will have a mental health issue
CC P
hoto
: Jes
se V
augh
an
Combating Misperceptions and Discrimination
Social Contact Works!
• Funded by US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Social Inclusion Grant
• Collaboration of Project Return Peer Support Network, the Painted Brain and Weinreich Communications
• Population: Students at California Conservation Corps High School in South Los Angeles
• Primarily low income, underserved, 18-24 years old
Living Our Stories –Transmedia Storytelling Project
• Students would receive training in media skills
• Students would collaborate to create a cohesive transmedia story related to mental health for their peers
• Students would incorporate their own stories with similar themes to the story
• Trained peers/group facilitators with lived experience of mental health challenges would work with the students to help them understand the issue
Program as Conceived
• Students at CCC high school are older and often have work/family obligations
• Two non-overlapping class cohort schedules
• Students not willing/interested in working on project outside of weekly meeting
• Major incentives required for participation
• Low participation rate – 3-10 students/session, not always same week to week
Project Challenges
• Modular weekly activities – continuity not essential
• Improv, hip hop, art, haiku stencils• Thematic focus on students’ lives, related
to mental health issues, profiling, social inclusion
• Incentivized story element production• Compilation of students’ own stories into an
overall transmedia experience
Current Program
http://LivingOurStories.tumblr.com
• People telling their own real stories are powerful
• Participants make connections that you might not have considered
• Be flexible in adapting the original plan to what works
• Follow the participants’ preferences in terms of which media to use
• Incentives work!
Lessons Learned